Top Ten Roddy McDowall Favorites

[Det Jim McLeod]

Here are mine in chronological order, what are yours?

1. How Green Was My Valley (1941) great film of Welsh coal miners. Roddy gives one of the greatest child performances as the sensitive lad. My favorite scene is his harrowing first day of school.

2. Lassie Come Home (1943) the best of the Lassie movies, he has many touching moments as he has to face life without his beloved collie.

3. Midnight Lace (1960) a very good thriller about a stalker terrorizing Doris Day. Roddy is now grown up and takes on a creepy suspect role.

4. That Darn Cat (1965) a great Disney comedy, Roddy plays a rich jerk who is dating Dorothy Provine and he wants to blast the title cat with a shotgun.

5. Planet Of The Apes (1968) Roddy gets one of his greatest roles as the intellectual chimp who is fascinated by talking human Charlton Heston.

6. Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971) the best of the Apes sequels, his ape character goes back in time with wife Kim Hunter and discovers life in the 1970s.

7. The Poseidon Adventure (1972) the greatest of all disaster films, he has a small role as a Scottish busboy, but has a great death scene.

8. The Legend Of Hell House (1973)  very scary horror story, he gives a fine performance as the physical medium dealing with a very angry ghost.

9. Class Of 1984 (1982) a tough exploitation film about punk rock kids causing mayhem in a high school. Roddy has the best scene in the movie as a teacher, fed up with his nasty students, pulls a gun and tells them now they are going to learn, or else...

10, Dead Of Winter (1987) An underrated thriller with Mary Steenburgen as an actress held hostage in a creepy mansion. Roddy has one his most menacing villain roles as one of the kidnappers.

[TopBilled]

How can you not mention MY FRIEND FLICKA (1943)...?

[Aritosthenes]

1 hour ago, Det Jim McLeod said:

Here are mine in chronological order, what are yours?

1. How Green Was My Valley (1941) great film of Welsh coal miners. Roddy gives one of the greatest child performances as the sensitive lad. My favorite scene is his harrowing first day of school.

2. Lassie Come Home (1943) the best of the Lassie movies, he has many touching moments as he has to face life without his beloved collie.

3. Midnight Lace (1960) a very good thriller about a stalker terrorizing Doris Day. Roddy is now grown up and takes on a creepy suspect role.

4. That Darn Cat (1965) a great Disney comedy, Roddy plays a rich jerk who is dating Dorothy Provine and he wants to blast the title cat with a shotgun.

5. Planet Of The Apes (1968) Roddy gets one of his greatest roles as the intellectual chimp who is fascinated by talking human Charlton Heston.

6. Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971) the best of the Apes sequels, his ape character goes back in time with wife Kim Hunter and discovers life in the 1970s.

7. The Poseidon Adventure (1972) the greatest of all disaster films, he has a small role as a Scottish busboy, but has a great death scene.

8. The Legend Of Hell House (1973)  very scary horror story, he gives a fine performance as the physical medium dealing with a very angry ghost.

9. Class Of 1984 (1982) a tough exploitation film about punk rock kids causing mayhem in a high school. Roddy has the best scene in the movie as a teacher, fed up with his nasty students, pulls a gun and tells them now they are going to learn, or else...

10, Dead Of Winter (1987) An underrated thriller with Mary Steenburgen as an actress held hostage in a creepy mansion. Roddy has one his most menacing villain roles as one of the kidnappers.

Happy to Report that the Always Reliable, if Not Occassionally Eccentric Clive Selsby Revill is Still With Us Today, at the Imppresive Age of Ninety-One. 🎨

 

 

 

PS.

Ive Always Been (LopSidedly) Partial to theGreatest Story Ever Told,. Along with (the) Keys of the Kingdom myself..

[Roy Cronin]

MORNING AFTER?!

I can't take this stuff!

Give me a Strauss waltz anytime.

[Det Jim McLeod]

1 hour ago, TopBilled said:

How can you not mention MY FRIEND FLICKA (1943)...?

 

That's one I never saw, would like to.

[Sepiatone]

I don't think I can muster TEN movies I like of his or he was in, let alone "favorites".  And LORD LOVE A DUCK certainly cuts that number way down!  

Sepiatone

[TopBilled]

Just now, Det Jim McLeod said:

That's one I never saw, would like to.

It's enjoyable...good production values (and Technicolor) from 20th Century Fox. There was a sequel, THUNDERHEAD: SON OF FLICKA (1945) with Roddy and most of the same cast from the original.

[Det Jim McLeod]

41 minutes ago, Roy Cronin said:

MORNING AFTER?!

I can't take this stuff!

Give me a Strauss waltz anytime.

"I rather fancy it"

[Roy Cronin]

But back to the list:  I'm not familiar with the last three, but can't argue with any, especially POSEIDON and the Planet of the Apes.

Perhaps I would add "Lord Love a Duck."

[cinemaman]

Roddy  had  a  big  role  in  Cleopatra  as  Octavian.  I  liked  the  scene  in the  movie  were they  had  the  Battle of  Actium.

[BingFan]

I've always had fond memories of Disney's ADVENTURES OF BULLWHIP GRIFFIN (1967), which I first saw when it was new.   As the title suggests, it's a humorous adventure story about an orphaned young woman and her younger brother who leave their Boston home and head to California during the 1848 Gold Rush, accompanied by their butler, played by Roddy McDowall.

Roddy's co-stars here were Suzanne Pleshette, Karl Malden, and Richard Haydn, and they were supported by some very good character actors -- John Qualen, Parley Baer, Hermione Baddeley, Cecil Kellaway, Dub Taylor, and Mike Mazurki.  (The book on which the movie was based, By The Great Horn Spoon!,  was re-issued at the time with the movie's title, and I enjoyed it, too.)  I saw the movie again a few years ago, and it was still pretty  entertaining.  I think my loving this movie as a youngster is why I enjoyed Roddy Mcdowell's performances so much later on, when I saw him in much more well-known movies.

[Shank Asu]

3 hours ago, Det Jim McLeod said:

Here are mine in chronological order, what are yours?

1. How Green Was My Valley (1941) great film of Welsh coal miners. Roddy gives one of the greatest child performances as the sensitive lad. My favorite scene is his harrowing first day of school.

2. Lassie Come Home (1943) the best of the Lassie movies, he has many touching moments as he has to face life without his beloved collie.

3. Midnight Lace (1960) a very good thriller about a stalker terrorizing Doris Day. Roddy is now grown up and takes on a creepy suspect role.

4. That Darn Cat (1965) a great Disney comedy, Roddy plays a rich jerk who is dating Dorothy Provine and he wants to blast the title cat with a shotgun.

5. Planet Of The Apes (1968) Roddy gets one of his greatest roles as the intellectual chimp who is fascinated by talking human Charlton Heston.

6. Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971) the best of the Apes sequels, his ape character goes back in time with wife Kim Hunter and discovers life in the 1970s.

7. The Poseidon Adventure (1972) the greatest of all disaster films, he has a small role as a Scottish busboy, but has a great death scene.

8. The Legend Of Hell House (1973)  very scary horror story, he gives a fine performance as the physical medium dealing with a very angry ghost.

9. Class Of 1984 (1982) a tough exploitation film about punk rock kids causing mayhem in a high school. Roddy has the best scene in the movie as a teacher, fed up with his nasty students, pulls a gun and tells them now they are going to learn, or else...

10, Dead Of Winter (1987) An underrated thriller with Mary Steenburgen as an actress held hostage in a creepy mansion. Roddy has one his most menacing villain roles as one of the kidnappers.

Great to see Class of 1984 get some attention!

[SansFin]

I liked very much the depth which he brought to the character: Snowball in: Pinky and the Brain (1995-1998). I believe that few other actors could have portrayed hamster malevolence as strikingly.

[CinemaInternational]

How Green was My Valley

On the Sunny Side

Lassie Come Home

My Friend Flicka

The White Cliffs of Dover

Cleopatra

That Darn Cat

Lord Love a Duck

Planet of the Apes

Dead of Winter

[txfilmfan]

No one's mentioned that mid-60s send-up of the funeral industry: The Loved One

[EricJ]

8 hours ago, Det Jim McLeod said:

5. Planet Of The Apes (1968) Roddy gets one of his greatest roles as the intellectual chimp who is fascinated by talking human Charlton Heston.

6. Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971) the best of the Apes sequels, his ape character goes back in time with wife Kim Hunter and discovers life in the 1970s.

8. The Legend Of Hell House (1973)  very scary horror story, he gives a fine performance as the physical medium dealing with a very angry ghost.

10, Dead Of Winter (1987) An underrated thriller with Mary Steenburgen as an actress held hostage in a creepy mansion. Roddy has one his most menacing villain roles as one of the kidnappers.

Darn, between that and Bullwhip Griffin, I had to go back to IMDb...I know there was something:

(surftypescroll)

...Aha, I knew it:  Peter Vincent, VAMPIRE KILLER (and washed-up horror actor/TV host)!

(Fright Night (1985), for those who didn't grow up in the Greatest Generation.)

[Det Jim McLeod]

13 hours ago, EricJ said:

(Fright Night (1985), f

Roddy was great , but I hated that movie!

[Vidor]

I'm not sure if Roddy McDowall made ten good movies.;

But one of them was "Pretty Maids All in a Row".

[Swithin]

Roddy's brilliant in Molly and Me (1945) with Monty Woolley and Gracie Fields.

 

[EricJ]

2 hours ago, Det Jim McLeod said:

Roddy was great , but I hated that movie!

Okay, that's a gauntlet thrown down:
...WHAT's there to hate about 80's Tom Holland?  😠  The Child's Play director and Psycho II screenwriter, not the Spiderman guy.

(And leave Whoopi Goldberg in "Fatal Beauty" out of it.)

[Det Jim McLeod]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

Okay, that's a gauntlet thrown down:
...WHAT's there to hate about 80's Tom Holland?  😠  The Child's Play director and Psycho II screenwriter, not the Spiderman guy.

(And leave Whoopi Goldberg in "Fatal Beauty" out of it.)

I thought Child's Play and Psycho II were pretty good. But Fright Night seemed to be an 1980s teen sex comedy with a vampire thrown in. I didn't like how they started making new rules around the vampire legend. And what kind of character was that henchman to the vampire supposed to be. He seems human at first then turns into some supernatural thing with no explanation. I haven't seen it seen it was first released but maybe if I check it out again...

And I must add, Fatal Beauty is one of the worst movies ever made!

[NipkowDisc]

you're all forgetting this one...

museum curator Roddy discovers the secret of the Hebrew Golem.

[NipkowDisc]

Roddy also produced-directed my favorite Goldie Hawn movie Overboard.

"Duh"

[TopBilled]

5 minutes ago, NipkowDisc said:

Roddy also produced-directed my favorite Goldie Hawn movie Overboard.

"Duh"

He did co-produce it, but the director was Garry Marshall.

[Stallion]

The two movies I remember McDowall from the most were How Green Was My Valley and The White Cliffs of Dover. In the latter movie, I enjoyed his interaction with a young Elizabeth Taylor.